Stacy Horn

Heading home this afternoon I walked straight into a wall of people. “What are you here for?” “Gold Rush Rally!!! WOO!!” “25 million dollars worth of cars are about to drive by.” “WOO! WOO! WOO!” Well, okay. That’s not something you see every day. I stayed to watch. Pictures and a short movie follow. This all took place on Bleecker Street and I’m standing near Perry.

One of my neighbors (I’m guessing) making a quick exit. The cars kept revving their engines and it was ear-piercingly loud.

This woman was giving away wrist bands. “I’m sorry! I don’t have very many!”

Totally missed by everyone who was focused on the cars, was Laurie Anderson.

When this car drove up the crowd went absolutely NUTS. I quickly learned this woman was Concubine. That’s because everyone around me was screaming, “CONCUBINE!” “CONCUBINE!”

The man on the right is the driver of that car, Bryan Salamone. I googled him and learned that he was driving to raise money for the Sisters of St. Francis, a charity that was established to end human trafficking in Zambia. So, Bryan is a nice guy.

I made a short movie. Concubine and I share a laugh at the end because Bryan starts calling out, “Where’s Anne?” Anne appears and it turns out she’s his mom, which struck me as funny, the way he was calling out “Where’s Anne?” Apparently Concubine thought so too.

My Thursday birthday treat was the Loser’s Lounge. They were doing a tribute to the Talking Heads this time. The picture below is of Alyson Greenfield, who was particularly great that night, and singer Tricia Scotti, one of my favorite singers who sings back-up at the Loser shows. Actually, everyone was on fire, the band especially. I decided they must really love the Talking Heads, because it brought out the best in them.

PS: I wish I was good enough to be a back-up singer. In my opinion they get the best part, making harmony. If you’ve never experienced it, it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world. It’s a full-body, extremely pleasurable sensation and it beats being the star. If you’re singing something that also means something to you, it takes you into the stratosphere of pleasure.

For my Wednesday birthday treat I went to The Museum of Mathematics. The Change of Perspective lecture was given by professor Michael Orrison of Harvey Mudd College. At the end he put up a slide with a stanza from a Blake poem:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

After his lecture I really did see and understand those words in a new way. Unfortunately, I saw that my mind still shuts down and refuses to do math. But I had a few real aha moments during his lecture, and was able to apply what he was talking about to my world. I think he would be glad that his point regarding mathematics worked in another setting. It was kinda the whole point.

This lecture was part of a series called Math Encounters, but they have a lot of events there, I see, and one coming up next week involving math, wine, cheese and chocolate.

This is looking through the doors into the museum. The symbol for Pi was used for the door handles.

As I said, I’ve decided to make this my birthday week and every day I’m doing some fun thing in the city. I forgot to mention, it has to be free or very close to free. For instance, I went to the Met on Monday, but at the Met you can pay whatever you like so I paid a dollar. On Tuesday I went to the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

Speaking of FIT, I’ve always wondered why they are not the ones associated with the show Project Runway. Not that Parsons isn’t deserving but FIT is strictly about fashion. I just googled it. Tim Gunn was the chair of fashion design there when the show started. I love Tim Gunn. (One must never lose an opportunity to praise Tim Gunn.)

The show currently at FIT is all about lingerie. They wouldn’t let me take pictures inside the show but I was allowed to take pictures of the garments outside in the lobby. This was designed by a recent graduate, Vianna Occhino. The picture is not capturing the glittery elements in the skirt.

I love watching The Bachelor and the Bachelorette, and Andi was on her way to becoming my favorite Bachelor/Bachelorette. I’ve always marveled at how the people on this show never ever ever ever have a conversation of any substance. They never talk about books, art, current events. And they still don’t, but Andi did seem on her way to raising the level of discourse. She recently asked one of the men on the show about the root of one of his problems and actually got him to talk about himself in something other than cliches. I’m pretty sure that has never happened before.

But the season has been hard to watch because one of the people on the show, Eric Hill, died soon after filming. In the most recent episode it got truly horrible. Eric pulled Andi aside and said something to her so completely real, something completely fair and reasonable, it was great. In response Andi had a meltdown. Her reaction was just so insane and over the top. She clearly misunderstood what he was saying. I think she’s just stressed. (I started to try to explain what happened, but you really need to watch from the beginning to understand.)

Anyway, the point is he raised the level of discourse. He also said one of the most truly real things that has ever been said on this show. AND, the gracious way in which he handled her meltdown is also unprecedented on this show. He had originally approached her to defend himself, and he was right to. But when she freaked out in response, he let her vent. He tried to calm her but he could see that in that moment she was beyond hearing or understanding. She was too upset right then to comprehend his point of view and addressing that, so he stopped trying to explain. He also did it in a way that showed his capacity for compassion and dignity.

I’m not trying to demonize Andi. I still think her reaction was insane, but again, stress, misunderstanding, and who hasn’t over-reacted in their lives. Also, the only other person to say something real was Andi herself, on her season with Juan Pablo.

It’s just that to watch that interaction, and to know that this wonderful person is no longer living was terrible. I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like for his family and friends. It highlighted how great he is, and now he’s just gone.

I changed my mind about what picture to post in light of this topic. This is a dog I photographed in Central Park the other day. I will always remember how at the end of Jon Stewart’s first show after 9/11 he pulled a dog out from under his desk and said something along the lines of, “Here is something we can all use right now. A puppy.”